LIKE a funeral procession they filed out, expressions frozen but eyes sodden with emotion.
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More than 200 workers at Cootamundra’s Manildra Meat Company clocked off for the last time on Friday after a decision to decommission the plant.
For many, it was a step into the abyss.
Unskilled to work elsewhere and lucky to have a few weeks’ wages stashed away, most workers and their families have been thrust into a hell not of their own making.
Some are hoping to pick up work at abattoirs in Gundagai or Wagga but most will be lost to the Riverina.
The impact on the broader community should not be underestimated.
For this proud town of about 5500, losing 220 workers is a bitter blow to the economy.
In relative population terms, that’s the equivalent of 171,000 Sydney workers being made redundant.
The flow-on effect to local pubs, takeaway stores and other businesses will be profound.
The real estate market is likely to sag and the sudden population dip could impact on the viability of other services.
Like its revered son Sir Donald Bradman, the town of Cootamundra has copped plenty of bouncers in its 170 years history.
But like the Don, it’s managed to dodge the worst of them.
It will do so again this time, in no small part because of its greatest strength – its connectivity.
Largely neglected by government and subject to the tyranny of distance, towns like Cootamundra have survived because they have an unbreakable sense of community and understand charity begins at home.
A bit more charity from the state and federal governments wouldn’t hurt though.
While Riverina MP Michael McCormack and Cootamundra MP Katrina Hodgkinson should be commended for mobilising some support from government agencies, more is needed.
A meaningful approach would be for the government to offer short-term financial relief for these families and help reskill the workers.
To blame Manildra for this predicament would be to misread the factors behind the closure. Buoyant livestock prices might be good for some farmers but when consumers don’t absorb the margins at the end of the chain, the middle man gets caught short.
And it’s the wage earner that often ends up as the meat in the sandwich.